EMPEROR: The Gates of Rome, Book 1 (Unabridged)

On a small estate just outside Rome in the first century BC, two boys become blood brothers, little imagining the extraordinary future that lies before them. As friends and rivals, Gaius and Marcus are destined to find lasting fame.

Emperor: The Blood of Gods: The Emperor Series, Book 5

Julius Caesar has been cut down. His blood stains the hands of a cabal of bold conspirators, led by famed general Marcus Brutus - whom Caesar once called a friend. Have these self-proclaimed liberators bravely slain a power-mad tyrant or brutally murdered the beloved Father of Rome? Hailed as heroes by a complicit Senate and granted amnesty, the killers eagerly turn toward plotting the empire’s future under their control. But Caesar’s death does not rest easily with all of Rome.

Genghis: Birth of an Empire

He was born Temujin, son of a khan, raised in a clan of hunters migrating across the steppe. Temujin's young life was shaped by a series of brutal acts: the betrayal of his father by a neighboring tribe, his family left to die on the harsh plain. But Temujin endured, and from then on, he was driven by a fury to survive in the face of death, to kill before being killed, and to conquer enemies from beyond the horizon.

Wars of the Roses: Stormbird

In 1437, the Lancaster king Henry VI ascends the throne of England after years of semi-peaceful regency. Named "The Lamb," Henry is famed more for his gentle and pious nature than his father's famous battlefield exploits; already, his dependence on his closest men has stirred whispers of weakness at court. A secret truce negotiated with France to trade British territories for a royal bride - Margaret of Anjou - sparks revolts across English territory.

Wars of the Roses: Bloodline

Winter 1461: Richard, Duke of York, is dead - his ambitions in ruins, his head spiked on the wall of the city. King Henry VI is still held prisoner. His Lancastrian queen, Margaret of Anjou, rides south with an army of victorious Northerners, accompanied by painted warriors from the Scottish Highlands.

Amazon Customer says:"Who knew English history could be so interesting!"

Wars of the Roses: Margaret of Anjou

It is 1454, and for over a year King Henry VI has remained all but exiled in Windsor Castle, struck down by his illness, his eyes vacant, his mind a blank. His fiercely loyal wife and queen, Margaret of Anjou, safeguards her husband's interests, hoping that her son, Edward, will one day come to know his father. With each month that Henry is all but absent as king, Richard, the duke of York, protector of the realm, extends his influence throughout the kingdom.

The Flame Bearer: Saxon Tales, Book 10

From the day it was stolen from me, I dreamed of recapturing Bebbanburg. The great fort had been built on a rock that was almost an island. It was massive; it could be approached only on land by a single narrow track; and it was mine. Britain is in a state of uneasy peace. Northumbria's Viking ruler, Sigtryggr, and Mercia's Saxon queen, Aethelflaed, have agreed to a truce. And so England's greatest warrior, Uhtred of Bebbanburg, at last has the chance to take back the home his traitorous uncle stole from him so many years ago.

Winter's Fire: The Rise of Sigurd 2

Sigurd Haraldarson has proven himself a great Viking warrior and a dangerous enemy. He has gone a long way towards avenging the murder of his family. And yet his vengeance is not complete. The oath breaker King Gorm - who betrayed Sigurd’s father - still lives, and, so long as the king draws breath, the scales remain unbalanced. But Sigurd and his wolf pack of warriors are not at full strength, and to confront the king now would mean death.

God of Vengeance: The Rise of Sigurd 1

Norway, AD 785. It began with the betrayal of a lord by a king.... King Gorm puts Jarl Harald's family to the sword but makes one fatal mistake - he fails to kill Harald's youngest son, Sigurd. His kin slain, his village seized and its people taken as slaves, Sigurd wonders if the gods have forsaken him. Hunted by powerful men, he is unsure who to trust, and yet he has a small band of loyal followers at his side.

Fin Gall - A Novel of Viking Age Ireland: Norsemen Saga Series #1

For centuries, the Vikings have swept out of the Norse countries and fallen on whatever lands they could reach aboard their longships, and few could resist the power of their violent onslaught. They came at first to plunder and then to settle, an encroachment fiercely resisted wherever they went. Such was the case in the southern lands of Ireland. En route to the Viking longphort there, known as Dubh-linn, Thorgrim Night Wolf and Ornolf the Restless stumble across an Irish ship.

Outlaw

When he's caught stealing, young Alan Dale is forced to leave his family and go to live with a notorious band of outlaws in Sherwood Forest. Their leader is the infamous Robin Hood. A tough, bloodthirsty warrior, Robin is more feared than any man in the county. And he becomes a mentor for Alan; with his fellow outlaws, Robin teaches Alan how to fight - and how to win.

Night Wolf: A Novel of Viking Age Ireland: Norsemen Saga Series, Book 5

With their ill-fated raid on the monastary at Glendalough torn apart by betrayal and defeat, Thorgrim Night Wolf and his handful of survivors from the crew of Sea Hammer find themselves in desperate and tenuous straits. Stranded far from the safety of Vik-lo, surrounded by enemies, and with barely enough men to work the longship's oars, the Norsemen must make their way back through a dangerous and uncertain country. Thorgrim, however, is not interested in mere survival. His one thought, his one desire, is to take revenge.

Glendalough Fair: The Norsemen Saga, Book 4

Spring has come to Ireland, where Thorgrim Night Wolf, new-made Lord of Vík-ló, and the 300 Viking warriors under his command have suffered through a brutal winter. Despite having accomplished much during the months of cold and rain, the patience of the men has worn thin, and anger and frustration threaten to tear the ships' crews apart. But just as the men are turning on one another, a local Irish lord arrives with a proposal, a plan for Irish and Norse to join together in a raid.

The Tiger's Fate: Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer, Book 3

A nobleman from an infamous family, an imperial legionary officer, and a born fighter, Captain Ben Stiger has successfully thwarted the attack from an army of the Cyphan Confederacy. Now Stiger, his men, and his new dwarven allies have fallen back behind the great walls of Castle Vrell. Stiger finds himself named Legate of the Vanished, the long-lost 13th Legion. This title and his own word binds him to the terms of the Compact, an ancient and mystical alliance formed nearly 2,000 years before.

Under the Eagle: Eagles of the Empire, Book 1

The first novel in Simon Scarrow's bestselling Roman series. It is 42 AD, and Quintus Licinius Cato has just arrived in Germany as a new recruit to the Second Legion, the toughest in the Roman army. If adjusting to the rigours of military life isn't difficult enough for the bookish young man, he also has to contend with the disgust of his colleagues when, because of his imperial connections, he is appointed a rank above them.

The Winter King

The tale begins in Dark Age Britain, a land where Arthur has been banished and Merlin has disappeared, where a child-king sits unprotected on the throne, where religion vies with magic for the souls of the people. It is to this desperate land that Arthur returns, a man at once utterly human and truly heroic: a man of honor, loyalty, and amazing valor; a man who loves Guinevere more passionately than he should; a man whose life is at once tragic and triumphant.

Marching with Caesar: Birth of the 10th Legion

Titus Pullus, the hero of the 10th Legion and the Marching With Caesar series, tells his story from the very beginning of his life, starting with his relationship with his father, how his friendship with Vibius Domitius began, and how their burning ambition to join the Legions was helped by a veteran nicknamed Cyclops. Enlisting in the 10th Legion, raised in 61 B.C. by Gaius Julius Caesar, Birth of the 10th Legion recounts the first campaign ever conducted by Julius Caesar as a commander...

Enemy of God

At the end of The Winter, King Arthur fought the battle that forces unity on the warring British kingdoms and now he sets out to face the real enemy - the English (it is one of the great ironies of the Arthur stories that he should have become an English hero when, if he existed at all, he was a great war-leader who opposed the invading Sais). First, though, Merlin leads a perilous expedition into the mysterious west to retrieve a cauldron, one of the treasures of Britain.

1356: A Novel

On September 19, 1356, a heavily outnumbered English army faced off against the French in the historic Battle of Poitiers. In 1356, Cornwell resurrects this dramatic and bloody struggle - one that would turn out to be the most decisive and improbable victory of the Hundred Years' War, a clash where the underdog English not only the captured the strategic site of Poitiers, but the French King John II as well.

Harlequin: The Grail Quest, Book 1

Thomas of Hookton is one of these archers. But he is also on a personal mission: To avenge his father's death and retrieve a stolen relic. Thomas begins a quest that will lead him through fields smeared with the smoke of fires set by the rampaging English, until at last the two armies face each other on a hillside near the village of Crécy.

Hunting the Eagles

Five long years have passed since the annihilation of three Roman legions in the wilds of Germania. Varus, the general who led the ill-fated army, is long dead, and the bones of his 15,000 legionaries moulder in the forests. But not all the Romans were slain in the ambush. Centurion Tullus, a seasoned veteran, survived, and now he lives for revenge upon the tribal chieftain Arminius, who masterminded the ambush. Tullus will stop at nothing to kill his bitterest enemy or to recover his legion's lost Eagle.

Blood Eye

In a thrilling adventure of brotherhood, warfare, and treachery, Giles Kristian takes us into ninth-century England, a world of darkness, epic conflict, and an unforgiving God served by powerful priests. On ships shaped like dragons, bristling with oars and armor, Jarl Sigurd and his fierce Norsemen have come in search of riches. And riches they are promised, by an English ruler who sends Sigurd and his wolves to steal a holy manuscript from another kingdom.

Excalibur

In Excalibur, we follow Arthur and Derfel to that enormous struggle and incredible victory. It not only throws the Saxons back, but reunites Arthur and Guinevere. He might hope now to be left alone, to have a time of peace after gaining a great victory, but new enemies arise to destroy all he has achieved. First is Mordred himself, the crippled king who owes everything to Arthur and now tries to kill his benefactor. Mordred's ally is Nimue who has come to hate her mentor, Merlin.

The Tiger: Chronicles of an Imperial Legionary Officer, Book 2

Captain Ben Stiger captured Castle Vrell and rid it of a minion of a dark god. Now he finds himself cut off from the empire, with a hostile rebel army marching on the legion's fortress where they guard the entrance to Vrell Valley. It is not in Stiger's nature to simply wait for the enemy. Badly outnumbered and facing odds greater than 20 to one, he sets out to impede the enemy's advance and show them the steel that the legions are made of.

Publisher's Summary

The fourth volume in the acclaimed Emperor series, in which Conn Iggulden interweaves history and adventure to recreate the astonishing life of Julius Caesar - an epic tale of ambition and rivalry, bravery and betrayal.

Would you listen to EMPEROR: The Gods of War, Book 4 (Unabridged) again? Why?

No

Who was your favorite character and why?

Marcus, Julius,octavian

What does Paul Blake bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

His accent was much different from the previous narrator and his prounciation gave me a new different perspective to the names like Cabrera Gaditicus

If you could take any character from EMPEROR: The Gods of War, Book 4 (Unabridged) out to dinner, who would it be and why?

Marcus, I was sad to realize that he will betray Julius and try talk him out of it...Julius could have achieved much more if he was on the side...or may take Julius to talk him to treat and appease Marcus as much he swayed the people.

Any additional comments?

Looking forward to get my credits renewed tomorrow to get the next book...

What did you love best about EMPEROR: The Gods of War, Book 4 (Unabridged)?

The book is involving, just as other books in the Emperor Series. The reader's performance is good. However, I do agree with some reviewers that his pronunciation of names is somewhat unusual, and for me it was even tougher since I had listened to the first two books of the series in a language other than English.

Any additional comments?

But... Audible service is a misunderstanding. Why can't you download audiobooks in a NORMAL format such as mp3? It has been a standard for sound files for years. And these are audiobooks you BOUGHT! Plus there are also restrictions on how many times you can burn your audiobook to CD. That's ridiculous! There is no way I am staying with Audible past the trial period. It is cheaper and more convenient to buy the same books on CD off eBay - and then I can do anything I like with discs. Of course there are workarounds to convert .aa format to .mp3, but why waste time and effort to "crack" a product for which you PAID? I hate to spell it out, but such restrictive policies (DRMs, etc.) do nothing to fight piracy, they only encourage it.

A complete package, but this narrator is excellent! Obviously classically trained, he manages all voices most expertly. The story is good, and it must be remembered this is fiction. Die hard historians should look elsewhere.

What does Paul Blake bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

The best narrator I have listened to so far. I will take notice of any other work he takes on.

Any additional comments?

Again, this is fiction. I love "true" Roman history as much as the next person, so I had to remind myself those times the story wandered from actual events.

I was not familiar with Conn Iggulden and his Emperor series. But as an aficionado of Ancient Roman History, and a former history teacher, I was disappointed this work of historical fiction. It is a compelling story. Rome's civil war pitting Caesar and Pompey, and the inexorable push by Caesar to gain absolute power, yet Iggulden relayed too heavily on the fiction, and not so much on historical accuracy, in ways that were too obviously out of context. A few examples, the story lines involving Julia, Caesar's daughter were completely fabricated, especially with references to a relationship she had with Brutus. Equally, the character of Brutus is mostly exaggerated, especially his being portrayed as an exceptional general, who helped subdue the Ptolemaic attacks on the legions in Alexandria after Pharsalus. The biggest disappointed in this work, however, is the pronunciations of names by the narrator. His pronunciations of famous figures too some getting used to. Cicero is Kickero, Octavian is Octawian, to name just a few. Finally, he covers the decline of Republic with little mention of Cato, whom the narrator calls Kato. Over all, it is an entertaining listen, just not a very accurate historical representation of these dramatic events.

A brilliant series. My only gripe is that they switched readers for the second half of the series and he pronounces all of the character names differently which jars as he reads: Servillia becomes Serwillia; Octavian becomes Octarwian.

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

Simon

Waterlooville, UK

2/1/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Beware the Ides of March!"

In a way it’s almost tempting to say that this author has cheated, after all how can you fail to write a good story when the life of Julius Caeser was so utterly fascinating. Of course that would be doing Iggulden a massive dis-service as he once again brings history to life for us. This book is fast paced and full of all the elements that we have come to expect from this series including some of the most famous characters of ancient history.

This part of the story contains a lot of action and brings the friendship between Caesar and Brutus to its bloodthirsty conclusion. The brooding sickness of Brutus providing a strong counterpoint to the glorious light of Caesar throughout.

As with the previous book the narrator is once again Paul Blake who I personally enjoy. I think suffice it to say that if you were okay with him on the previous book you will be with him for this one. Book 5, the concluding book of the series has yet another narrator who seems to have been getting even poorer reviews . . . some trepidation again as I move on. It would be such a shame if a series as excellent as this one were to end badly through poor narration.

Finally I’d like to mention the inclusion of the authors “Historical Note”, I find it fascinating to get some further insight into the history and the writing process.

In summary an excellent series continues.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Stanley

Belfast, Antrim, United Kingdom

9/15/10

Overall

"Emperor: The Gods of War by Conn Iggulden"

Despite the occasional historical digression this is a cleverly constructed novel that intertwines the imagined lives and feelings of the historical characters with the recorded events and artifacts of the era. A brutal and idealistic society is graphically described alongside the hedonism that underpins enduring legend of the most famous Caesar.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

@stupotpot

3/12/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"Dodgy pronounciation!"

Narrator consistently mispronounces characters. Although this may be historically more accurate, it is distracting considering previous narrators have set precedents. Very off putting.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Denise

Tilford, United Kingdom

9/19/11

Overall

"Fascinating Series"

I loved this series, I learnt so much about Roman History and Julius Caesar, even though the author does admit taking a little poetic licence with the some of the timelines and historic facts to make more of a story, but this didn't detract from it at all for me. Nor did Paul Blake's narrative, which yes, is different from Robert Glenister who was also excellent, but I think he does a brilliant job in interpreting the cast and giving them each their own different characterisation. A thoroughly enjoyable series. I can't wait to start Conn Iggulden's Emporer series.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Paul

8/5/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Emperor"

Great narration. Superb.my first audio book after reading the first three in the series.Highly recommended.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Oliver

4/22/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"great"

great addition to the series, if you enjoyed the others I recommend this one too

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Andrew

3/17/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Brilliant"

Don't worry it's great regardless of what others may say about Monty Python parodies. It is read well and pronunciation is accurate to classical language with V being pronounced as a W....not a speech impediment 😂

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Wardy789

1/13/16

Overall

Performance

Story

"Such a shame"

Would you try another book written by Conn Iggulden or narrated by Paul Blake?

I love Conn Iggulden, I loved this series and many of his other series and I'm sure he didn't have a choice in the narrator for this series. If I see another book narrated by Paul Blake I will not listen to it.

Would you be willing to try another book from Conn Iggulden? Why or why not?

Yes. Love the writer and have started reading the War of the Roses series which I would recommend.

Would you be willing to try another one of Paul Blake’s performances?

No. Can't stand his narration

What character would you cut from EMPEROR: The Gods of War, Book 4 (Unabridged)?

I wouldn't cut Brutus but definatley change his character from this book. The way he flipped in this book was confusing and made me question why I had invested in him as a character to change so dramatically. Early on I assumed he would be the character I was supposed to like and support (and I did) for him to become a homicidal psychopath who turned on all his friends to take over the whole of Rome.

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

Emtjonny / glassjonny

Northern Ireland

3/20/15

Overall

Performance

Story

"A sad conclusion to the excellent series"

But then it has to be. It's history. Didn't like the reader of last two books. He pronounces his letter a very strangely. Most of putting

0 of 0 people found this review helpful

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